Did someone mention Orton..... HOLLY COW SHAPER

[Dev Emch]

The name orton showed up in the diatribe on green and white. The number of folks who know about orton is very small and its not orion. Its orton. And boy did they build a shaper! Orton shapers can still be found in companies like Boeing, etc. and these are the cream of the cream. Not many can compete with these. Here is an example of the orton shaper from which the legend springs..... Now this is how you build a shaper to last forever! Enjoy.

P.S. The feature list is so long that I would need a few pages to explain everything on this beastie.

[Rob Will]

Looks super heavy.....is that gearmotor on the left for spindle height?
So as compared to lets say a typical 3hp tilting arbor shaper, what would this animal bring to the zoo?

[Dev Emch]

Looks super heavy.....is that gearmotor on the left for spindle height?
So as compared to lets say a typical 3hp tilting arbor shaper, what would this animal bring to the zoo?

Not even close! You should rather ask why the typical 3 hp tilting spindle shaper cannot perform its work. These shapers can be used in cabinet shops but its over kill. Rather, they often had top bearing supported cutters that were in excess of 12 in long and were used to make boat and airplane parts. These machines could also turn at speeds in excess of 10,000 RPM which is why you see oil mist injection on the bearings. That is why you often find collet spindles in addition to conventional and top bearing support spindles used with these.

They are sooooo smooth and quiet to run. The runnout on the spindle is way sub one thousandths and the thinnest web section of the pedestal was 0.625 inches thick. The pedestal alone weighs more than your car!

The gear motor handles auto tilt and this one has digital readouts for both tilt and spindle height. It really does not get much better than this.

The only thing I dont really like about these is the spindle system. I believe it is a thead on spindle system as opposed to a taper fit spindle system. I dont like thead on spindles as they can be a real pain in the rear when changing and dialing in for accuracy.

[lou sansone]

wish I had the room
lou

[tod evans]

wish i had the money!!!!!!

[Dev Emch]

wish i had the money!!!!!!

I hear you there. Yes you too can have this gem of a machine for the bargan base price of $12,500 dollars. That is really cheap considering that this machine sold new for about $60,000 dollars. And when all is said and done, you dont even have a fence. That is as they say, left to the reader as a homework assignment.